Tuesday 23 August 2011

The Twin thing

The Twin Thing

I am a mum of twins, the gorgeous Mini Divas Eva and Mia.

I have written before about my postnatal depression, breastfeeding and the like, but never yet about The Twin Thing.

The Twin Thing is a curious little number that would appear to transform normal, rational women who bear twins into the Most Irritating Mother.

Now, there are certain factors about having twins for which it is nice to hook up with other multiple mums and chew the cud; what wheels are you rocking, how did you cope with the sleepless nights/dual feeding/pregnancy and such, but after the initial baby bit is done, I essentially have 2 children. Don't get me wrong, when I was up the duff I trailed twin mum friends around with book in hand taking notes, but now we are cruising in toddler-dom it's pretty much the same as having 2 children.

'Cos it is.

Yes, they are twins, yes I happen to think it's a beautiful and very special thing, but I am not now going to parade them around in matching clothes, ensure everyone in earshot at all times knows I have twins, and only ever meet up with twin mums and their small people.

Matching clothes only ever happen if I am too tired to care, or if it's all we have left to wear, and my girls are so different in personality to dress them the same seems just weird.

Meeting up with twin mums is lovely, but to do that often means a complete military operation in pram management (3 mums means 6 kids and Starbucks just aint built for it), not to mention a noise level that leaves me reaching for the ibuprofen on the way home.



Friends that have the "usual" child configuration, i.e one older, one younger, have a much harder time in my opinion. My girls are doing the same thing at the same time so it's all pretty straight forward on that score. When I hold young babies now I cannot for the life of me fathom how I used to manage two of them during the day on my own but I did, and, despite being the living zombie that I was, we got there. I did play the twin card a lot when all I could say when bumping into friends was " I am so tired. So tired" then trudging off, grey of pallor and purple below the eyes before racking up some more coffee beans.



Of course there will be different questions raised in the next few years when it comes to school and the myriad of new challenges that brings but for now?  I am a mum of two. No special Twin Thing here please.



What do you think? Do you have twins and think it makes a big difference, or do you know a Twin Mum who uses the Twin Thing at all given moments?

DD

x

 

Photography: Miles O'Carroll

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1 comment:

  1. [...] have written before about the Twin Thing, where there is a tendency to only talk about your offspring as twins, as if they are not people in [...]

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